Two Romanian Projects Share Inaugural Transilvania HBO
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- Cristi Iftime's "The Fear's Artist" and Marius Olteanu's "We Won't Get Old Together" were named dual recipients of the inaugural Transilvania HBO Award, a €30,000 ($34,400) prize selected from seven Works in Progress projects by a jury featuring Arte France Cinéma's Georges Goldenstern and HBO/HBO Max's Siarhei Samusevich.
- "We Won't Get Old Together" is Olteanu's sophomore feature, a pandemic-set drama about a man rebuilding his life; his debut "Monsters." won the Tagesspiegel Audience Award at Berlin's Forum strand in 2019.
- "The Fear's Artist" marks Iftime's first feature in nearly a decade, following his debut "Marita" which was awarded at Karlovy Vary in 2017; no public details on the project were released.
- "Fathers," directed by Bulgaria's Martin Iliev and produced by Angel Ivanov (Handplayed), won the Transilvania Pitch Stop grand prize offered by Chainsaw Europe; it follows a young director confronting generational trauma alongside his father after a life-threatening diagnosis.
- "Times New Roman," from Ukrainian director Philip Sotnychenko and produced by Valeria Sochyvets and Sashko Chubko, won the TPS Development Award from post-production house Avanpost; the film follows an artist reenacting political assassinations across Europe.
- PRO TV awarded a development agreement to "Stay in School!" by Rodica Dominteanu in the Drama Room's best series project category, while the Transilvania IFF runs June 12–21 in Cluj.
Why it matters: The €30,000 dual prize marks HBO's first formal industry investment in TIFF's Works in Progress slate, giving two Romanian directors direct completion financing that could reshape Romania's auteur pipeline. Pitch Stop wins went to projects from Bulgaria and Ukraine — including a Ukrainian title centered on political violence across Europe — extending the festival's footprint as a regional co-production market beyond its Romanian core.
